HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE. 151 HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE. Parus hudsonicus. Char. Above, pale dull brown, darker on crown; cheeks white; below, grayish white; flanks rusty; throat brownish black. Length S to 5^- Nest. In an excavation in a decayed stump, usually entering from the top. On the bottom of the cavity is placed a platform of dried moss, and on this another of felted fur, and upon this latter is set the graceful pouch- shaped nest of firm felt, made of the inner fur of small mammals. Eggs. 6-10; creamy white with brown spots in a circle around the larger end; 0.58 X 0.58. This more than usually hardy species continues the whole year about Severn River, braving the inclemency of the winters, and frequents the juniper-bushes on the buds of which it feeds. In winter, like the common species, it is seen roving about in small flocks, busily foraging frojn tree to tree. It is said to lay five eggs, Mr, Audubon met with it on the coast of Lab¬ rador, where it was breeding, about the middle of July, He describes the nest as being placed at the height of not more than three feet from the ground, in the hollow of a decayed low stump scarcely thicker than a man's leg, the whole so rotten that it crambled to pieces on being touched. It was shaped like a purse, eight inches in depth, two in diameter in¬ side, its sides about a half an inch thick. It was composed of the finest fur of different quadrapeds, so thickly matted through¬ out that it looked as if it had been felted by the hand of man. On the nest being assailed, the male flew at the intrader, utter¬ ing an angry te-te-te-tee. The Hudson Bay Chickadee is fairly common in the Maritime Provinces, though more abundant in winter than in summer. It has been found breeding, also, in the northern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Michigan, and in the Muskoka districts of Ontario. Mr. Walter Faxon considers it a rare though regular migrant to the eastern part of Massachusetts, but thinks it occurs in numbers in winter amid the Berkshire hills. A few examples have been taken in Connecticut and in Rhode Island.